Car Rental Recommendations & Tips

Rumple4skin

Rumple4skin

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Looking to rent a small car next week for 11 days. Landing at OR Tambo and staying in Centurion. Never rented a car before so would appreciate any recommendations and tips on what to look out for and be wary of.

A tip I have heard is to not use the airport as the pick up location as that might make it more expensive, so will try that and see if it’s true. SkyScanner & similar 3rd party sites seem to have the best deals from my limited research so far.

Any advice at all is appreciated.
 
Do the inspections properly and make sure they note all damage
Preferably add to your own policy as all car rental policies, excess's and covers suck.
 
Has anyone used discovercars dot com before? They seem a bit cheaper than the rest.
 
Hemi300c said:
Do the inspections properly and make sure they note all damage
Preferably add to your own policy as all car rental policies, excess's and covers suck.
Click to expand...
How do you go about doing that?
 
As mentioned above, look carefully at the applicable damage and theft excesses. These can vary from R3 500 to more than R25 000 depending on the rental company, even for the same class / size of car. These excesses are often not clearly highlighted and you have to dig for them a bit in the rental terms and conditions. I don't think any personal car insurance policies cover this potential cost so it would be payable out of your own pocket. The car hire cover in motor policies refers only to the cost of hiring a vehicle in the event that your insured vehicle is stolen or damaged.
 
Some good advice above, I'd add:

Use a credit card to book. A 'hold' for the deposit on a credit card is much less of a hassle than on a debit card.

Ask about refuelling. If they want you to refuel, ask what the closest station is. Keep you receipt showing that you refueled just before drop off.
 
airborne said:
How do you go about doing that?
Click to expand...
All good insurers will add for the period you using it for.
Just contact your broker or your insurer if you are in a unfortunate position to be directly insured.
 
pb41 said:
As mentioned above, look carefully at the applicable damage and theft excesses. These can vary from R3 500 to more than R25 000 depending on the rental company, even for the same class / size of car. These excesses are often not clearly highlighted and you have to dig for them a bit in the rental terms and conditions. I don't think any personal car insurance policies cover this potential cost so it would be payable out of your own pocket. The car hire cover in motor policies refers only to the cost of hiring a vehicle in the event that your insured vehicle is stolen or damaged.
Click to expand...
You have to add to the policy for the period to be insured and get a confirmation letter.
 
Bill Clitnon said:
Looking to rent a small car next week for 11 days. Landing at OR Tambo and staying in Centurion. Never rented a car before so would appreciate any recommendations and tips on what to look out for and be wary of.

A tip I have heard is to not use the airport as the pick up location as that might make it more expensive, so will try that and see if it’s true. SkyScanner & similar 3rd party sites seem to have the best deals from my limited research so far.

Any advice at all is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Are you SA licensed? If not I get £109 for the 11 days via Kayak.co.uk

Screenshot 2024-10-13 at 10.57.42.png
 
Jet-Fighter7700 said:
maybe a way to get the few tourists to stay in this craph0le country,

bet you back at home in the UK they dont do that
Click to expand...
Based on Europcar.co.uk they seem to offer unlimited mileage to SA residents by default.

Screenshot 2024-10-13 at 12.56.47.png

NB: Mileage... because that's how we roll.
 
bwana said:
No idea. On noticeable difference is I seem to get unlimited kms by default.
Click to expand...
Also noticed the same now. When I was browsing abroad it was all unlimited. Now that I'm in SA and browsing (I don't need the car just yet) it only gives 200km per day and going unlimited is much more expensive. Turning on a VPN results in the cheaper unlimited prices again.

From my research it seems it's residence based and not licence based. I have a SA licence, but I am not SA resident.
 
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